It’s been a while since I last did a posting here. Happens occasionally, as I’ve been busy with lots of other things. But now I have great news to announce. My book Smugglers Train has been published in Germany by Moloko+. It’s a collection of 19 poems in the original English, plus six prose pieces (fiction & non-fiction) as excellently rendered into German by the well-known translator Pociao. The spiffy cover design and layout was done by Inga Tillere, who also contributed several eye-catching collages. In addition to which there are photos, including some of mine. I am understandably very pleased!

It’s a classic experience for whenever you have a little time, a music & poetry-packed interview with yours truly conducted by writer/radio dj bart plantenga.

Enjoy! TFE

ps Listening to this after more than 10 years, I caught a couple of factual errors on my part. E.g., it wasn’t “two guys” who recorded Dylan Thomas and subsequently launched Caedmon Records, but rather two young female college graduates. Plus it was in Saranac Lake, New York (not Branford, Connecticut) where I first heard Jerry Vale’s rendition of the Eddy Arnold song “You Don’t Know Me” and personally lived thru everything he was singing about. The girl was Shirley Smith and the chap she walked away with was named Joe 🙂 There may be other small blips, but they hardly matter. The interview is still a classic!

This is a lost live broadcast dating from 14 November 2005 on squat-anarcho station Radio Patapoe that I recently stumbled upon in my deepest files… Decided to resurrect it, tweak it, add some relevant material & relaunch it. It features the irrepressible “Gangster Poet,” Eddie Woods, exiled for some 40 years in Europe, mostly Amsterdam, where he created a seminal & essential link between Old & New World, between bohemians & outsider artists & writers and wrote a fair amount of poetry that continues to resonate into the very now. bp

Since its publication in September 2013, my memoir Tennessee Williams in Bangkok has been reviewed several times, both in magazines and by Amazon customers. All the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. And although I’m not getting anywhere near rich from it :-), the sales are coming along. Interestingly enough helped by the release in December 2014 of the Dutch edition, entitled Bangkok Confidential. Hereunder you have a clickable listing of those reviews. And at the end a hyperlink for ordering the book, either in print or as an eBook. Plus scroll down a ways on that page to already read the first four chapters for free!

It’s a good read. And a fast one. So go ahead and buy TWIB now. Trust me, you will not be disappointed! For sure there are further volumes of memoirs in the works, along with so much other groovy stuff. I’m on a creative roll, folks. And I’ve no intention of voluntarily stopping anytime soon.

It crossed my mind to send this only to my Benelux friends.
But then I thought no, let’s tell the whole world! That my bookBangkok Confidentialhas been published

The launch party went down on December 4th at Boekhandel Vrolilk in
Amsterdam, and it was fantastic! A great turnout on a bitterly cold afternoon and evening. And not just the usual suspects, either. The Dutch writer & performer Paul Schaaps recited excerpts from the book. After which Sacha de Boer (who wrote the Foreword) and I signed copies. There were drinks and snacks galore, a bloody good time was had by all, and the cash register kept going ding-a-ling. All of which adds up to a roaring success.

As most of you know, my Thailand and Singapore memoir, Tennessee Williams in Bangkok, was print published last year by Inkblot Publications (Providence, Rhode Island).

Now Barncott Press in London have released the book in Kindle and (for Nook, iPad, iPhone, Android, etc) .epub editions. Links for these and the print edition, along with a preview that allows you to already read the first four chapters,* are on the Barncott Press website

* Plus see down below (at the end of this posting) for those first four chapters!

“If this man hadn’t been a decadent, he would have been a Jesuit.” That’s
Richard Jurgens on me (and oh how true!) in his magnificent review ofTennessee Williams in Bangkok, which at the same time is an essay about the book’s author. It has just been published in Urban Graffiti magazine and you can read it here

As many of you already know, the book itself is available from almost all
Amazon sites, as well as from AbeBooks and the publisher. But if you want direct links rather than having to search, just scroll down a little ways here

An earlier review by Richard Livermore (likewise excellent) appeared online in Ol’ Chanty magazine. This is it

The full tale begins nearly 30 years ago (1985). Which is when I first heard
the song that turned out to be entitled “Lover.” Though at the time I had no
idea who wrote and was singing it. And therefore also didn’t know it was on
the album Last Dance On Saturday Night. Close to two decades later (I was still mainly living in Devon, England then), I finally went on the hunt for the singer/songwriter. And within a few months found him. A link to that complete back story is appended below. Just now, however, I want to concentrate on the man and his music.

And so with great pleasure I hereby present the entire album (for ages unavailable in any form). Specially internet designed and uploaded to YouTube by my good friend and colleague Bart Plantenga.

All ten songs play one after the other. But you can pause at any point, look to the right-hand menu, and select another track. While again below you’ll find separate links to each of the songs.

The Yarre Stooker film Mary, based on my poem “Mary” and starring the virgin whore poetess Win Harms in the title role, has now been wonderfully presented in Urban Graffiti magazine. You can read the write-up and see the film right here

Once you have done, by all means send the link to your friends and colleagues. We want Mary to go viral. She deserves to!

We will of course be entering Mary in film festivals. Should it win anything like an Oscar, you’ll surely hear 🙂

Cheers, EDDIE

“I suspect Mary will win many awards at film festivals. It is the best
cinematic treatment of a poem I have seen in a very long time.”
– Urban Graffiti editor Mark McCawley

My collection of short fiction, Smugglers Train & Other Stories, is now available from Barncott Press in both eBook and print editions. To see a preview (which includes the entire title story!), + for ordering information, click on this

Also be sure to check out all Barncott Press titles. They really swing!